Photo: AP
Snap Inc. announced today that it’s releasing a new developer kit that embeds Snapchat’s signature features like bitmoji and stickers into other apps. Reports of Snap Kit leaked last month, but this is the official confirmation.
Snap Kit is currently invite-only, Wired reports, but Tinder, Giphy, Pandora, and Patreon will be included at launch. Pandora announced a Snapchat integration that lets users share songs with each other.
Six months in, Snapchat is recovering from a very rough 2018. Longtime users balked at the app’s redesign, and a torrent of bad press accompanied Kylie Jenner’s infamous “does anyone else note open Snapchat anymore?” tweet and a heinous ad referencing singer Rihanna’s 2009 assault. The visibility Snap Kit brings could turn around the app’s public image as it heads into the second half of the year.
In a blog post, Snap lays out some of the ways Snap Kit may be used:
Creative Kit helps developers integrate their own stickers, Filters, links, and other highlights — like high scores and workout stats — right into the Snapchat camera, so you can add your own touch and share it with friends.
Login Kit lets you unlock new features on Snapchat and other apps — or use your Snapchat account as a quick, secondary way to log in.
Bitmoji Kit lets your conversations come alive with Bitmoji stickers when messaging on other apps.
Story Kit lets developers filter and embed publicly shared Snapchat Stories into their own apps and services.
News of “Login Kit” drew immediate comparisons to Facebook, which lots of apps use as an authentication shortcut, “Log in Via Facebook.” Snapchat’s war with Facebook is longstanding. Facebook infamously created its own version of Snap’s disappearing messages for Instagram, to enormous success. Snap says its own foray into third-party sharing will include much tighter data restriction than Facebook’s.
“We definitely followed the Cambridge Analytica scandal really closely and carefully, as we do all such events in this space as they impact us,” Katherine Tassi, Snap’s deputy general counsel, told Wired. “But our approach to privacy and our principles are firmly embedded in the way we design products, and the way we’ve been developing this toolkit has had that approach all along.
[Wired]